Theory: Why Celestia is a cult leader, how she has a cult of personality inside a cult of personality, and how she indoctrinated Twilight.
So, we all know how the ponies worship Celestia as a God. However, within this religion, there is a cult. A cult of brainwashed, indoctrinated ponies, lied to by a charismatic leader, run as a tyranny.
Background
First, we need to estabilish the target demographic of a cult. Most of those who join cults are suffering from longing, loneliness, and a need for validation, as studies show. This is something Twiley and the other Mane 6 go through, in fact, some episode plots wouldn’t happen if they weren’t suffering from it.
Also, notice how Celestia effectively adopted Twilight, taking her from her parents. This is something cults do, detaching their former lives from their lives in the cult. Cults encourage cutting off any ties to the past, and that includes cutting off ties to family.
According to ex-members of the real-life Aesthetic Realism cult, cults use an 8-step indoctrination process to bring new members into the fold. And many of the events we see in G4 map shockingly well into these 8 steps.
Step 1: Inviting the little pony to a non-threatening event.
This is something that’s easy to say yes to, as it requires a low level of commitment. This could be anything, parties, galas, balls, get-togethers, meetings, classes…
Classes… The School of Gifted Unicorns, a school personally run by Celestia, which Twilight is in.
Step 2: Love-bombing.
This is to shower potential victims with praise and attention, to create a positive association between the cult and good feelings.
Celestia singles Twilight out. Out of all the students there, it is Twilight that gets chosen as Celestia’s protege. It is Twilight who, according to Word of Faust, underwent a dragon egg hatching test that nopony else got. It is Twilight who becomes the Element of Magic, and being Celestia’s favorite pony, it was Twilight that reformed Nightmare Moon.
Step 3: Dangling the prize.
Now, most main character ponies are female (and Rarity presumably followed Bob Barker’s advice and got her pet dragon spayed and neutered), so nothing should literally be dangling here. Instead, the “prize” that ponies care about is more magic power, and for many of them, the goal of their lives is to become an Alicorn Prince/Princess. This is the prize that goes to exceptional ponies when they do something particularly outstanding. For example, Twilight became one by fixing her monumental mistake.
Step 4: Extracting an agreement from the little pony that they want the prize.
By the end of Magical Mystery Cure, Celestia has made Twilight an Alicorn. She gave her wings, she gave her extra magic, and tells her that she is now royalty. Twilight has already made new friends inside the cult, ditching the old
Canterlot 6, her brother is romantically involved with an Alicorn, and what does she do? She
embraces what she’s been given. She is now in deep. And from here on out, Twilight is Celestia’s little pony, and this is part of her identity now. She isn’t just enlisted into the cult,
she is now at the top.
And while Twilight may have finished her road to Alicornhood only completing Step 4, we actually see Steps 5-8 of this framework taking place in G4 as well.
Step 5: Shutting down dissent by threatening to withhold the prize.
This is in order to inspire good, obedient behavior. This is supported by the fact that they fear displeasing Celestia.
And THAT is the essence of ascending into Alicornhood. Only the most exceptional can become Alicorns, which means many ponies try to become Alicorns, only to die before doing so. Even if they just want more power, that prize is always tantalizingly close to their faces, but just out of reach. It keeps them striving for more. I mean, Trixie, one of the show’s villains, is just a stage magician driven mad by how badly she wants to be more powerful than Twilight.
And why would a pony want more power? Many of them know how good they currently have it. Rainbow Dash knows how she flies all day and has her unique Sonic Rainboom, she is doing fine. Rarity has her fashion business, where she keeps giving customers gem-crusted makeovers, she is doing fine. Applejack being a land-owner, farmer, and sort of a slaver, she is doing fine. Most of them like it the way it is. Why would any of those ponies want more magic?
I’ll tell you why: it’s becuse they believe that’s what they’re supposed to want. It’s because many of the little ponies have been brainwashed by Celestia’s teachings.
Enter Sunset Shimmer from the Equestria Girls series, one of Celestia’s ex-students, who has since been ousted from the group and exiled to the human world. Through Sunset, we see what happens when somepony goes out of line. The pony is ostracized. Publically ridiculed and isolated from the group. Sunset serves as a warning sign to the other ponies, she’s bad because she went out of line. Doubters bad, believers good.
Sunset being exiled is a warning sign to Celestia’s other students: This could be you! Again, it’s shutting down dissent. But to Sunset, this has a different purpose:
Step 6: Estabilishment of guilt.
Here, the leader shames recruits, which in turn makes them vulnerable to further manipulation.
Sunset is ostracized, knocking her ego down, leaving her coming back to Celestia’s human counterpart for a new chance at life. Leading to:
Step 7: “The Carrot and the Stick”.
This is when the cult leader, in this case Princess Celestia, rewards her little ponies for their good behavior, and punishes her little ponies for their bad behavior.
We see this with Twilight. She is given wings, she is given the Element of Magic, she is given high status as an Alicorn Princess. As well as with Sunset, who regrets her decision to leave Celestia and comes back into the fold. And thanks to her work, all the human counterparts forgive her and welcome her back. This leads us to the final step:
Step 8: Control of identity, information, and enviroment.
Something we see hinted at many times in the show. The way Celestia reinforces how she wants harmony and friendship for her ponies, that is how she controls identity. The only type of media we see is run by kids/foals. Celestia could bribe them with anything they want, they have no means of editorial control. And the enviroment is something Celestia also controls, everything from the weather to day/night cycles are implied to be run by ponies, and there is at least one guard in every town, whether it’s the middle of nowhere like Ponyville, a bustling metropolis like Manehattan, or the capital city of Canterlot.
Conclusion
By the end, it’s clear Celestia’s inner cult has been successful. Twilight has become Celestia’s successor, and the last few bad guys, including a foal and a Changeling Queen, have been turned to stone. That’s right, one of the characters who got the closest thing to a death sentence and also the one whose race was willing to embrace Harmony. By sealing Tirek, Chrysalis, and Cozy Glow away, Celestia eliminates three malcontents, possible future liabilities, and silences them indefinitely. All while making every other pony think it’s a good thing. Gaslighting, anyone? I mean, how would seling the Changeling Queen away lead to anything other than Changelings becoming extinct due to being unable to repoduce?
And tragically, Twilight is hooked. The final episode confirms it: she eventually replaced Celestia and is raising another cultist, repeating the process all over again. And thus ends the FiM story.
Look, i could go on and on, explain how Equestria is a dictatorship, how Celestia often staged many incidents and forced Twilight and her friends to solve them, how Luna wasn’t NMM when she got blasted off for a millenium, Celestia hits every aspect of a traditional cult leader. I don’t think this is even a theory anymore.
